MOSCOW, March 20. /TASS/. Neo-Nazis in Ukraine are using more than 4.5 million civilians, including 6,838 foreigners from 18 countries, as a human shield, Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Sunday.

"Despite the fact that humanitarian corridors are opened every day, Ukrainian neo-Nazis continue to keep more than 4.5 million civilians as a human shield in Kiev, Kharkov, Chernigov, Sumy and more than 20 other blocked large cities. There are 6,838 citizens of 18 countries among them," he said.

According to Mizintsev, crews of 70 ships from 15 countries are staying in blocked seaports in Ukraine.

He also said that more than 9,500 temporary accommodation centers are operating in Russia for refugees from Ukraine.

The nationalists, abandoned by Kiev in Mariupol, organized mass terror in city districts still under their control, Mizintsev said.

"The most horrific humanitarian catastrophe has emerged in Mariupol due to lawlessness, carried out by Ukrainian nationalists. Desperate and out of their mind, the bandits, realizing that any help from Kiev is impossible, have embarked on mass terror in Mariupol districts that they still control. Meanwhile, the verified information that we receive, indicate horrible atrocities carried out by the militants gone insane out of desperation," Mizintsev said.

He noted that the tonality of the militants’ active communication with Kiev officials, which Russian forces intercept every day, indicates their extreme anger towards Ukrainian authorities who have simply abandoned them.

"Meanwhile, they are being commanded to ‘stand their ground to death,’ with the status of ‘martyrs of Mariupol’ already assigned to them," the general added.